


Inventing Tomorrow

by Lexi_the_dragon_muse



Series: Out of chaos, comes order [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Captain America: The Winter Soldier Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 13:51:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1472185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lexi_the_dragon_muse/pseuds/Lexi_the_dragon_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria Hill destroyed her world with the push of one button.  Now, she has to leave the past behind and invent tomorrow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inventing Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> Yay me! Two stories in a week. I'm so glad I have my muse back. These will mostly be one shots, but I'm not ruling out a multi-chapter fic in there somewhere. For now, they are going to follow one or two characters in the troubling times that are following CA:TWS. Thanks for all the reviews and kudos on the first story. I hope everyone enjoys this!
> 
> I still don't have a beta right now, so if you spot any errors, please let me know!

Maria Hill knew the moment she brought down the Hellicarriers that her life was changing.  With the press of a button, all she had worked for was gone.  And for once in her life, she didn’t care.  She had never put a step out of place, striving hard to gain her place at the top of the S.H.I.E.L.D. hierarchy.  When she had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. directly after her four year stint in the Army, she had been amazed to find out that one of the founders of the organization was a woman.  That in itself gave her a relief.  After dealing with the boy’s only club that perforated the armed forces, to come to an organization that accepted the strengths that a woman brings to the table was refreshing.  So she worked hard, proving to the top brass that she had what it took to move up in the levels.  And now, she was responsible for collapse of said organization.

She knew she had to act fast if she wanted to get ahead of the inevitable storm that was about to descend on anyone that had ties with S.H.I.E.L.D.  So with that in mind, once the helicopter landed and Fury and Falcon made their exits, she was on her way back to New York to grab a shower and change.  Her first stop, the only place she could think to go when her life had been destroyed was Stark Industries.  She grimaced as she quickly changed.  She was not a fan of Tony Stark. He was arrogant, mouthy and if you looked up the phrase sense of entitlement in an encyclopedia, you would find his picture.  To negate that, she knew he was one of the few people that she could trust and she did trust Pepper Potts’s good sense when it came to at least hearing her story. 

She walked into the human resources department, butterflies fluttering in her stomach.  She drew a deep breath and then asked for an application, before quickly filling it out on the tablet provided.  After completing that, she waited in the reception area, her attention trained on the live conference being given by Pepper Potts.  She was not surprised to learn that Fury had given control of the Avengers over to S.I.  Nick Fury was always one to plan at least ten steps in advance.  That was highlighted by his plan once Hydra attempted to murder him.  That nugget of information gave her a glimmer of hope that her half thought out plan might actually work.  As she settled back in the chair, she opened her ears and listened to what was going on.  She was surprised by the sheer number of resignations that began to come in, but since that meant that the likelihood of her getting a job rose, she would take it as a victory.

Finally after an hour wait, she was called back to a small room and hooked up to a lie detector.  She answered all of the questions honestly, barely flinching at the invasiveness of some of them and once done, she was told to wait.  Finally, the man who had done the testing came back in.  “Congratulations, Ms. Hill.  You are now employed with Stark Industries.”  He handed her a tablet expectantly.  “Here is the new hire orientation package and someone will be here shortly to show you to your desk.”

“Thank you,” she said a hint of confusion in her voice.  “What position?”

To that the man smiled.  “I believe I will let your new supervisor tell you that in person.  It’s a pleasure to have you with the company,” he said before walking out of the office.

Shrugging, she began to read all of the material on the tablet.  Most was just general information about health insurance (which was actually better than what S.H.I.E.L.D. offered) and the 401k plan, but when she got to the section entitled Tony Stark, she couldn’t help but snort.  Evidently, there was an entire section of H.R. that was dedicated to handling complaints the staff made about Stark.  She had just made it through the main portion of the package when the door opened and a young, buxom brunette walked in.  Maria looked up and with a start realized she recognized the woman.

“Well, if it isn’t Agent Hill,” the woman said.  “Don’t know if you remember me, which by the way you totally should.  But, if you don’t, then I’m Darcy Lewis.”

Maria nodded.  “New Mexico.  The intern.”

“Yup,” she said as she popped the ‘p’ at the end of the word.  “Anyway, I’m here to take you to your destination and also share this awe inspiration quote from Steve Jobs.  “Let’s go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday.”  Just don’t tell Tony that I’m quoting Steve Jobs.  I _don’t_ want to deal with his prima donna attitude right now.”

“Is that your way of telling me that you’re burying the hatchet?” she asked as she rose to her feet.

“Eh.  Carpe diem and all that jazz.  ‘Sides, you passed the intensive Jarvis background search, so live and let die.  Come on.  First order of business is to get your handprints and retinal scan.  That will allow Jarvis to code your access in the system.  Follow me.”

Maria just nodded, feeling a little like she had just fallen down the rabbit-hole.  As they walked down the hall, Darcy chattered away, but Maria ignored her until they walked into a non-descript office. 

“Hey, J-man!  Whazzup?”

“I am keeping it real, Miss Lewis,” a British voice replied.

Maria felt the corners of her mouth twitch as the dry reply.  She had heard Coulson talk about Tony Stark’s A.I., but she had never believed that he was actually telling the truth when he said that you could hear the exasperation in the replies.  Now, she understood completely.

“So, Maria here needs the full bio work up so she can totes work for us.”

“Of course.  Ms. Hill, will you please step up to the table?  Place both palms down on the screen.”  Maria did as instructed and a few seconds later a light passed over both hands.  “Now, please hold the tablet in front of your eyes.  Do you wear contacts by any chance?”

“No.”

“Good then.  Please raise the tablet.” 

Maria did as she was told and a few seconds later, her retinal scan was in place.

“Thank you, Ms. Hill.  Welcome to Stark Industries.”

“Thank you, Jarvis,” she replied.  She turned to see Darcy looking at her.  “Yes, Miss Lewis?”

Darcy shrugged.  “I’m impressed.  You’ve put up with my non-stop chatter and you didn’t freak out over Jarvis.  You’re going to fit right in.”

“I put up with much worse before my coffee before and Coulson used to talk about Jarvis.  He sounds more well-mannered than his creator most of the time.”

Darcy grinned.  “Oh, you definitely will fit right in.  Follow me to the elevator and I’ll show you around.”  Darcy didn’t pause as she walked out of the room, her former leisurely pace gone.  Maria had to lengthen her stride to keep up with the younger woman.  She walked to the elevator, which slid open just as they arrived.  “Thanks, Jarvis.  No matter what Tony says, I know you love me the best.”

“Of course, Miss Lewis.  Floor seventy-nine?”

“Yes and privacy mode, please.”  As the doors slid shut, Darcy turned and faced her.   “Okay, so now that we are completely secure, let me get real.  You have been selected to be Pepper’s new personal assistant.  We need someone we can completely trust in that position.  Trust me when I say that the number of people we can truly trust right now is limited.  That being said, Sam Wilson told us what you did to bring down S.H.I.E.L.D. and save all of our lives, so you’ve been added to that list.”

Maria felt stunned.  She had expected to have to prove herself, prove that she wasn’t Hydra.  The unwavering belief that they were placing in her actually touched her.  “Thank you,” she finally managed to reply after the silence had begun to drag.  Focusing her mind back on what Darcy had told her, she felt her eyes widen.  “Wait.  I’m going to be Pepper Potts’ PA?”

Darcy giggled.  “Try saying that three times fast,” she said with a grin.  “Yes.  You are her gatekeeper basically.  You will answer the phone, triage her email and generally do everything in your power to make sure that she can run this company that pays us so well.  You will also get the ability to run off Tony Stark anytime Pepper doesn’t want to talk to him.  Which, by the way, is about half the day.”

Maria grinned.  “I can’t wait.  Stark irritates me on the best of days and to be able to tell him no?  That is what I consider a perk.”

“Oh!  Speaking of perks.  You will get all brand new Stark equipment, so much better than Apple and the cafeteria downstairs is basically a five-star restaurant.  There is also a state of the art gym for employee use.  What about housing?  Do you need to move?”

She shook her head.  “No.  I’ve always kept an off-book apartment in New York.  It’s in Brooklyn Heights.”

“Nice neighborhood.”

Maria smiled.  “It’s a family owned property that cannot be traced back to me.”

“Even nicer.  You will probably have an apartment here in the tower as well.  Trust me when I say, this can be a twenty-four-seven job.  Pepper rarely gets downtime and she is constantly traveling.  That’s the only reason that I never applied for the job.  I can’t trust Jane to feed and water herself if I’m gone longer than three days.”  The elevator slid to a stop.  “You ready?”

“I worked with Nick Fury.  How bad could it be?”

If only she had known how much she was tempting fate, she never would have uttered those five words.

#

Three days later, Maria was trying to figure out just how desperate she was, that she had applied for a job with Stark Industries.  It wasn’t that she didn’t respect Pepper, hell after three days of the madness, she was ready to nominate the woman for sainthood, but she truly couldn’t understand how working for a covert spy agency was somehow more relaxing than corporate America.  It has been three days of name-calling by Tony Stark.  Somehow he would only call her “Former Agent No Fun” and dealing with the massive quantities of emails that Pepper received.  Really?  How could one person be expected to get through three _thousand_ emails a day?  She now understood why scuttlebutt said that there was a rotating door on the assistant’s job.  From what she had heard there was a sizable pool on how long she would last.  The current estimate was nine days.  She had smirked at the estimate and through Darcy put her own money in on the pool.  She planned to collect it so she could buy a pair of Louboutin’s.

“Ms. Hill.  Mr. Stark is on his way up,” Jarvis told her.

Maria sighed.  She had dealt with Tony Stark a grand total of six times so far and each time she found herself wishing she still carried a sidearm.  After the last visit, when he had bowled past her and interrupted a meeting with the New York State senator, she had asked Jarvis to warn her.  “Thanks, Jarvis.  Darcy is right, you really are the best person in this building.  All I ask is that when you take over the world, please think of me in a positive light.”

“Of course.”

Steeling herself, she rose from her desk and situated herself in front of Pepper’s door.  There was no way that she was letting Stark into the office.  She heard the elevator ding and crossed her arms, putting on her iciest expression.  The one that she used to terrify the new agents with.  Seconds later, the whirlwind that was Tony Stark blew into the office.

“Former Agent No Fun!” he called out walking towards her.  “Damn, you’re still here so that means that I lost some money today.”

“Stark.”

He walked up to the door expectantly and tried to go around her.  “I need to see Pep.”

“Not gonna happen, Stark.  She’s in a meeting and has asked not to be disturbed.”

“That doesn’t apply to me.”

“No, it applies directly to you.  You can sit and wait for her like everyone else.”

“This is my tower.”

“Not this percentage of it.  This part of it belongs to Pepper,” she shot back, fighting to keep the grin off of her face as she recalled the conversation that she’d had with Pepper.  “This is part of her twelve percent.”

Tony looked flabbergasted and then a look of determination came on his face as he tried to get around her.  Two minutes later, she still hadn’t moved.  “Come on, please?” he said drawing out the vowels.

“Nope.”  She gestured to the couch.  “Sit.”

“I’m not a dog.”

“No, dogs are better behaved than you.  Don’t force me to make you sit down.”  She smirked.  “Actually, make me.  I’ve missed training.  It’ll be fun.”

Tony finally huffed in annoyance.  “Fine.  I’ll sit,” he said with an almost nasal whine.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” she said, not moving until he was seated on the couch.  She settled back at her desk, keeping one eye on the billionaire.  She saw the look in his eye, the one that told her that he was calculating to see if he could make it to the door.  “Don’t even think about it.  Pepper gave me leave to stop you by any means necessary except for deadly force.  Don’t think I won’t hesitate to use my training.”

He huffed.  “How much longer?”

“When she’s done.  She’s currently meeting with the Mayor to discuss sharing any intelligence that the police force gathers about Hydra and to work out arrangements for payments if the Avengers are called to battle in the city again.  Repairing New York is not cheap.  Trust me on that.”

Tony just slouched back in his chair, knowing that this was something that Pepper could handle more than he.  Instead, he decided to needle the former agent.  “So, why aren’t you in there with her?  You’re her assistant.  You should be assisting.”

Maria rolled her eyes.  “Unfortunately, the mayor requested that I not be in attendance to this meeting.  Something about not being sure if I was Hydra or not.  Pepper and Darcy are handling it.”

“Ouch,” Tony said wincing.  “I almost feel sorry for the mayor.  Between those two, they could make you sell your soul and thank them for it.”

“They know,” Maria said with a glint in her eye.  “They worked their magic on the Senator already.  Needless to say, Stark Industries is definitely coming out on top in these negotiations.”

“Good.  Not even I can foot the entire bill for Avenger related damages.”  He grew quiet a moment.  “Any word on Clint?”

Maria sighed.  “No, but in Barton’s case, no word is usually good.  There hasn’t been any word of anything big happening in Columbia either, but my sources are not as good as they used to be.  He’ll find a way to get a message to someone if he runs into something he can’t handle.”

“What about Hydra?  Wouldn’t he be on their kill list?”

“Not necessarily.  With his past, it could go either way.  It was a solo mission, deep cover, no handler.  He’ll be okay, Stark.  I have full faith in the caliber of operative that Barton is.”

Tony looked up as Pepper’s office door opened and the Mayor walked out.  He sent a wink to Maria before hopping to his feet.  “Mayor!  How’ve you been?  How are you daughters?” he said as he immediately dropped into his public persona. 

Maria just shook her head as the two men walked out of the office.  “And he said he wanted to talk to you,” she murmured to Pepper as she stopped at her desk.

Pepper laughed.  “He wanted to test you.  Obviously, you passed his test.  Have you heard anything from your contacts in Columbia yet?”

“No.  Hawkeye is completely off the grid.  Hopefully that means he caught the news and not that his mission went sideways.”

“Should we send someone in?”

“That would only make it worse if he hasn’t been compromised.  I don’t trust any of the communication gear that he was issued, so I’m going to try to get a message to someone I trust down there.  Someone that was never involved with S.H.I.E.L.D.  If she can’t find him, then I would recommend going in.”

“He’s Hawkeye.  He’ll be fine,” Darcy chimed as she stopped by the desk.  “So, I’m thinking happy hour.  Who’s up for margaritas?”

“Oh, hell yes,” Pepper said.  “After the last three days of meetings and placating, I need alcohol.  Tony’s buying.”

Maria quickly locked her computer and desk before standing. “I’m in.”

Darcy grinned.  “Let me grab Jane and we’ll make this a ladies’ night.  If only Natasha was in town.  Then we’d be a fearsome five-some.  Give me thirty minutes to drag Jane out of the lab and into a shirt that doesn’t have stains on it.  Text me the address, Pepper.”

“Will do and good luck.”

Maria laughed.  “You’re going to need it.”

Darcy shrugged, a twinkle in her eye.  “Jane and I have an understanding.  I won’t have to push her too hard to get her out of the lab.  She’s only been up twenty-four hours, so she’s savable.  Laters!”

“Pepper.  As much as I want to throw Stark across the room, this seems to make up for him.  How often can we have ladies’ night?”

“Not nearly enough, Maria.  Not nearly enough,” Pepper responded as she walked back into her office to grab her purse and phone.  “Tequila here we come.”


End file.
